This application claims priority to French Application No. 02 05934 filed on May 7, 2002.
The invention relates to furniture and furnishings such as seats, armchairs and beds that can be used not only in daily use situations of ordinary home life but also on limited or temporary occasions, during the vacation period or for leisure use.
In other words the seats, armchairs, beds and similar objects can be used as accessories for camping, walking, weekend leisure activities or simply at home.
Referring now to FIG. 1, the prior art has long included furniture forming seats known as reclining armchairs, consisting of rigid parallel side members, sometimes forming closed U-shaped frames with supporting fabric stretched on and between them and attached by elastic means. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, which the applicant has in particular marketed for many years, the elastic means, which are of the tensioning type, are threaded through a series of eyelets formed for this purpose in the edges of the fabric, and hooks or the like provided for this purpose on the side members so that the tensioner can be threaded back and forth in a zigzag pattern from eyelet to hook. In practice the successive hooks are made from a zigzag undulating wire, with portions welded to the inside generatrix of the side member, defining between two successive connected portions an opening for the insertion of the tensioner or other means of attachment of the same type. In the prior art reviewed above, the problem lies in the costs of fabrication and assembly of the element connecting the fabric to the supporting framework. Clearly, threading the tensioners through the eyelets and hook shapes is slow, fine work and not very practical. It continues to be done by hand only as it is difficult to devise a means of threading first in one direction and then in the other with manipulator arms or the like by way of automation on either side of the longitudinal plane represented by the supporting framework. However, the advantage of this construction is that the tensions applied to the fabric are balanced.
The MARGA Italian patent No. VI94U000041 discloses another fabric tensioning system. Here an extra bar is fixed to the interior of the metal frame and the lateral edges of the cloth or fabric are attached by means of elastic cord passing through a plurality of eyelets formed in the edges of the fabric and retained by a plurality of hooks, each hook coming between two successive eyelets on the abovementioned bar. This construction is more complex. Its only advantage is that the elastic cord can be fed through said eyelets, and then, afterwards, the parts of the elastic cords that can be displaced sideways are hooked over the associated hooks on the abovementioned bar. This construction is not however very satisfactory.
The object of the invention is therefore to research and devise a fabric attaching, connecting and laying device that will be easy to produce, easy for the operator to handle and of a limited manufacturing cost compared to the prior art.
Another object of the invention is to devise a device which, while being easy to position to connect the fabric to the supporting framework, performs a complete locking or self-locking function, so that the seat is then absolutely safe to use.
Another object of the invention is to devise a device that can be partly replaced in the event of deterioration, without reducing the support provided to the fabric by the supporting framework.
In accordance with a first feature of the invention, the device for locating and attaching a fabric to a supporting receiving furnishing furniture and seat structure, said structure comprising at least one side member to which is presented and attached a zigzag undulating wire strip defining open intervals for the passage of means of connection, is noteworthy in that it comprises a band made of a plastics material attached to the outer border or borders of the fabric, said band having at least one shaped molded tab integral with the band, said tab having the shape of a supporting cradle so as to be inserted against the opposing wall of the side member of the supporting structure, and in the intervals formed between said side member and a strip attached to said side member, and in that the area of the join between the band and the tab constitutes an area of reaction capable of taking the pressure of an undulating part of the strip, thereby enabling the tab to be locked in position relative to the opposing side member.
These features and others also will be shown clearly in the remainder of the description.